


Dark Room

by DevinTowerwood



Series: Life in Snippets [3]
Category: Life Is Strange
Genre: F/F, Multi, Polyamory, Supernatural AU - Freeform, bigender!Chloe, trans!Victoria - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 06:45:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4867037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevinTowerwood/pseuds/DevinTowerwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The girls team up with Frank and discover the secret of the Dark Room. Together, they try to locate the culprits responsible and bring them to justice, although they may have different meaning to those words. Meanwhile, Victoria, Taylor, and Courtney try to pull the End of the World Party together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Dark Room is revealed.

It was 4am when Max received the text. It lit up her ceiling and vibrated close to her face, almost as bad as an alarm. She snatched it up and tapped a button to make it stop, but it occurred to her that it was unusual to receive a text at this hour. She rolled over in bed, practically laying on her phone, her eyes were so close to the screen.

 

> **Frank:**  I need a favor and i need a car.
> 
> **Max:**  what?
> 
> **Frank:**  Im going to send you a GPS location. I need you to meet me there with a heavy car & a a weapon if you’ve got one. U can consider yourself good on weed through the end of the year if you make good.
> 
> **Max:**  OK but it’s not dangerous is it?
> 
> **Frank:**  Use your head. Meet me ASAP.

Max did not like the sound of that, but she also appreciated the idea of being on Frank’s good side and, honestly, she wasn’t up to evaluating risk at this point in time. She pushed herself up out of bed and quickly began to dress. She also send Victoria a text.

 

> **Max:**  come outside your room. Frank needs some help and I’m worried. Plus, your car...

Max continued to dress, and then, remembering Frank’s words, located the wrapped gun in her room, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into her hoodie. The touch of the gun reminded her of Tuesday night, and she shuddered.  
Then, she got another text from Frank.

 

> **Frank:**  This might have something to do with your friend who got drugged. Hurry up.

Kate? What could this have to do with Kate? Nevertheless, this was the convincing that Max needed, and she gave herself a quick pat-down in the mirror to make sure the gun’s presence wasn’t too obvious. Then she quietly opened her door slightly so that she could hear if Victoria was up.  
And she was - Max could hear the faint rasp as she shuffled around her room, getting dressed. Soon, Victoria also opened her door quietly, apparently not owning anything like a hoodie or otherwise discreet article of clothing and emerging in a lavender button-up and dark suit.

 _“I’m very confused why Frank needs us,”_  Victoria whispered,  _“Especially when he lives in an RV and is, you know, Frank.”_

Max shrugged.  _“He said it had something to do with Kate.”_

Victoria was still.  _“Well, okay then.”_

\--

In the parking lot, Max noted, “He said we’re going to need a heavy car. I’m not sure if your Prius will cut it.”

Victoria hesitated in front of her car, then looked over Nathan’s red pick-up. “Don’t worry - we’ll bring a heavy car.”  
While Victoria started looking around the car - by the gas tank, over the tire, and the like - Max copy and pasted the GPS coordinates into google maps and found the location to be . . . vague at best. And really far outside of Arcadia Bay. “Oh, shit, this place is far out. If he’s stranded or something, we better hurry.”

Thankfully, Victoria located the keys to Nathan’s car just a few minutes later. “Let’s get going, then.”

\--

About ten minutes into their drive, Max received another text from Frank.

 

> **Frank:**  Shit!!! The place im at, its a fucking barn in the middle of nowhere & somebody just drove out of it. fucking nice car just left at 4:30 in the goddamn morning. some shit is happening here. come get me NOW!!
> 
> **Max:**  we’re coming. How did you get out so far?
> 
> **Frank:**  Weird shits been happening, just hurry up!!!

\--

It was another forty-five minutes before they arrived at the destination, having only passed two other cars once they were out in the boondocks. Nevertheless, the slow speed that was forced by the winding roads as well as the numerous confusing turn-offs slowed their progress. Nevertheless, they found themselves coming to a gate after that time, dawn not too far off. After they waited there for a moment, Frank emerged from the woods. Unlike his normal business-like, joking, or pissed demeanor, Frank was clearly spooked. He pulled a chain that kept the gate in place off and pulled the gate open, and Victoria drove down a driveway several hundred feet long before a large, run-down barn came into view. For the time being, they remained in the car.

Then, Frank reached the barn, and walked up to the passenger window. “Get out, you two,” he said, “We’ve got some snooping to do.”

Victoria was clearly really, really uncomfortable with the circumstances. “What’s this about, Frank?” she asked, as if accusing him of something. Especially seeing as she didn’t see his RV anywhere.

Frank returned, “Look, Monday night. You asked me about date-rape drugs, right? And I knew who I’d sold them to before, because he was a distributor for them. Nathan. So I looked into it a little, and I think I noticed something - was the party where your friend got dosed on September 28?”

Now Victoria was pissed. “You said you didn’t move that shit, Frank! What the fuck!?”

Frank held his hands up in surrender. “I wasn’t going to sell out a source of business just because you asked. But, was it?”

Now Max spoke up, “Yeah, the party was the twenty-eighth. How did you know that?”

Frank leaned against the door of the truck. “Because Nathan purchased GHB from me that day. Not for the first time, so it hardly seemed odd.”

Victoria just tried to control her rage, because, while she was directing it at Frank, that meant that Nathan was not only using date rape drugs, but he was distributing them at the school. She thought he just peddled weed, or maybe E and acid before a party. Nathan had been lying to her for months.

Max looked to the barn. “So, why are we here, then?”

Frank looked at the barn, then back at the girls. “About four months ago, Nathan got pissed, said I sold him dilute shit - which I did not, he’s just a fuck up. Anyway, he asked me to meet him here with a new batch. I charged him double, made a crazy fucking profit, so I didn’t think too much about it. Not until a few hours ago, when I started combing back through my logbook, at least.”

Max was unsure what he could have figured out from that that they hadn’t already told him. “What did you find?””

Frank dragged his fingers across his mouth, thinking of precisely what to say. “April 22, you guys had a Vortex Club pre-prom party. Rachel went. And she never came back. And the day before, Nathan purchased more GHB from me.”

Victoria just stared in disbelief at Frank. “There’s no way. There is no fucking way. Rachel was Nathan’s friend. He would not  _drug_  and  _rape_  her in the woods. That’s insane.”

Frank stared at the barn. “Well, I hope you’re right. That’s what we’re here to figure out. Did you bring something I can defend us with?”

Max nodded, and produced the gun, which Frank looked over for a moment, checking the clip and such. “Nice piece. Now come on. I’ve already found a way in.”

\--

About twenty minutes later, the whole scene looked rather different. The sun was still in its early rising, but the barn’s doors had been thrown open, a hook fastened to the hidden bunker’s handle as well as to the back of Nathan’s truck. Victoria was in the truck, pushing down on the gas slowly, so that, if this ridiculous plan to pop off the lock actually worked, she wouldn’t just accelerated right through the fence. After about thirty seconds of gradual acceleration, the lock did pop off, and the door nearly did with it.

“Hold up, Tori! You got it!” Max called, and Victoria applied the brake, then turned off the car.   
She rested her head against the steering wheel.  _He got away with all of this right under my nose,_  she thought. She had been best friends with a predator for the past two years and she hadn’t suspected a thing.

She stepped out of the car, pulled the hook off of the towing . . . thing . . . and left it on the ground, making her way over to the other two. Frank was pulling the heavy hatch wide open, and a bright light emanated from inside. Victoria could see the top of a flight of stairs.

\--

“Oh my lord,” Max said, in shock. The stairs descended down into a white hallway, like a glimpse into the facility of Portal - clean, neat, and controlled by an evil, unfeeling machine. Frank hurried down them, and the two girls looked at each other for a moment before heading down.

They quickly came face-to-face with a large, round security door, like the hatch of a vault. A number pad sat to the left.

“What the fuck is this,” Frank uttered in disbelief. They would all like to know the answer to that question, but at the same time, they all wished they weren’t seeing this at all.

Max fished into her bag for her camera. “We can show this to the police. Even if they’re in the Prescott pocket they wouldn’t ignore something like this.” She lifted the camera to her eye, and was shocked at what she saw.

Before her, she saw an impression of two people standing where they were not - a spectral imitation of herself dressed precisely as she was, but also Chloe dressed exactly how she had seen her through her camera at Chloe’s house just hours before. She and Chloe really working together . . . in this alternate world.

“We’re not going to the police with shit,” Frank responded. Nevermind how bad that would turn out for him, he wouldn’t even trust clean cops with a situation like this. Not one that he had so much stake in.

Max continued to watch through her camera, although she took a few pictures for appearances. But the scene in front of her played out like a silent movie, and she watched as her translucent self walked to the number pad and quickly input three numbers in succession: 5-4-2. She put her camera away after that, and approached the keypad. She quickly noticed what was special about these three numbers - they were all faded, while each other key looked unused. She duplicated the gesture she had seen, albeit with shaky hands.

And then, the door slid open.

“Holy fuck, how did you do that?” Frank asked, not even stepping inside yet.

Max . . . was unsure how to answer that, so she just pointed at the number pad for a moment. “Only those three look used. There’s only so many permutations so I just guessed.”

“Well, lucky fucking guess.”

The three of them entered inside the bunker. They fanned out into a line, looking around at everything. Max started to use her phone as a light, as the makeshift hall they found themselves in was not illuminated. They were surrounded by what looked like a mix of a kitchen and pantry - stocked food sat against the righthand wall on several rows of shelves, while utilities sat against the wall opposite of them. A white curtain, similar to a hospital curtain, concealed another portion of the room to their left.

“It’s . . . a bomb shelter?” Max asked, now terribly confused. While she expected things like this from buildings built in the fifties and sixties, she never expected something so modern, white-tiled, and, you know, sealed by a vault door.

“Well, it looks like it,” Victoria said, but Frank quickly made his way forward, around the curtain, and found himself in a room he did not entirely understand. The girls moved after him and observed the same:

A sofa and coffee table sat near the back of the bunker along the back wall with appliances and shelves, only further left. The left wall of the U-shaped bunker was lined with cabinets for about a third of its length, leaving space in the corner for several paintings and photos, almost all of which dealt with themes of bondage, madness, or death, almost all of them in black-and-white, as many of Nathan’s pieces were. As they stepped into this portion of the bunker, Max even noticed a painting that looked an awful lot like a Cannibal Corpse album cover.

Not spaced far from the cabinets stood a table with nothing but a few written notes as well as an expensive desktop faced away from their position. An incredibly expensive printer sat to their right between the sofa and the wall of appliances, which Max noticed quickly. It was something on the scale of major media companies, like  _National Geographic_  - something Max couldn’t even imagine Nathan casually owning.

If the stairs had emerged at one end of the U, at the other end of the U-shaped bunker sat a white-painted rectangle that extended from the floor to the walls, creating a frame around black canvas. In this portion of the bunker, all of the walls were black, creating a surreal focus on the well-lit white portion. Idling near the rectangle were several pieces of extremely expensive photography equipment: tripods, cases for various lenses, things like that.

Frank shook his head slowly in disbelief. He did not understand what he was seeing, but unease was plain in his expression. “What has this fucker been doing . . .” It didn’t really sound like a question.  
Nevertheless, Victoria answered: “Let’s find out. See what you can find.”

They all agreed, and Victoria shot straight for the chair of the computer. Frank started looking along the edges of the bunker, as several things looked recently used, and Max went to open the only things that still left things concealed: the cabinets.

Max’s first cabinet contained nothing but more photography equipment as well as some stuff for a sound system. She closed it back up.

Victoria spoke up: “Hey, it looks like Nathan’s been here recently - and he never logged out of his e-mail. And the note here is addressed to him too.”

Frank turned something up too: “Hey, does Nathan drink whiskey? This stuff here,” he pointed to several syringes as vials of clear fluid, “is GHB all right, but it’s not like I provided endless variety - he’s only ever bought beer from me.”

Victoria thought about that for a moment. “I’ve never seen him drink whiskey, even at parties. He sticks to vodka, mostly.”

“Weird,” Frank said, and moved away from the coffee table containing these items to the back counter near the expensive printer.

Max was on her third cabinet when she finally found something, but my god did she find something. She opened up two doors of cabinets and was rewarded with a host of red binders, identical to those used by Blackwell staff. She didn’t take time to count precisely, but she would guess there were at least sixteen binders in here. While that in itself was not the jackpot, she did notice that the binders were all labeled with a name written in wide-print sharpie. Most she did not recognize, but she did recognize two on the bottom:  **Rachel**  and  **Victoria.**  “Ah,  _fuck, fuck, fuck_ , guys, come look at this.”

Victoria just turned around in her swivel chair, but Frank walked over, a set of papers in his hand that looked like a photocopy of an important document. He took a moment to peer at the binders, and then he saw it. “Mother FUCKER!” 

Max took out her camera again to snap a shot of the binders as proof, but once again she was rewarded with a spectre. Not only did she see all of the binders in front of her, but she saw an additional one. This one read **Kate**. She swallowed, and took a few pictures before Frank had his hands on the one that read  **Rachel** , and then Max grabbed the one that read Victoria.

Frank set the binder down on the desk, dropping down the piece of paper he was holding, that Victoria quickly picks up, pushing the keyboard and the mouse out of the way to fit the binder.

_The first featured Rachel, her legs bound, exposing her dragon tattoo wrapping around her right leg. Her arms remained hidden, and she stared at the source of the photograph with fierce intensity, but she was clearly afraid as well, bowing her head. The photo was shiny smooth, and clearly took place in the corner of the studio._

“God fucking dammit,” Frank swore at the first photo. Every page within the three-ring binder was a sleeve for a full-page-sized photo. He turned the page and was left with these two images.

 _The second showed Rachel completely unconscious, hands bound, top of her body entering from the left of the photo. She lay on some wrinkled fabric, like a blanket. Her cheek bulged slightly, as if occupied by a small object.  
_ _The third was very different from the others. It showed Rachel unconscious and laying sprawled out in an outside setting, her head resting on the chest of Nathan Prescott, still wearing his signature red jacket. They were both sprawled out in active positions, clearly posed. Junk was strewn on either side of them, but they lay on grass._

He breathed in and out slowly, as if trying not to scream while a knife was dug into him. When he finally spoke, it was slow, quiet, and venomous, “Who took this shot?” he asked, pointing to the photo of Nathan and Rachel lying unconscious in what appeared to be a trash heap.

Max began, “Well . . . it could be staged on a timer. It’s definitely his style.”

But Victoria shook her head. “No, look at this.” She pushed the photocopy onto the binder, obscuring the second photo. She pointed to several different lines on it. “This bunker was made for and outfitted by Sean Prescott, Nathan’s father. And Nathan has an email from his father saying that he’ll lead Nathan ‘into this room’ - and I think he might be referring to this bunker.”

Frank leered at her. “So what? You’re saying this is some fucked up Prescott secret? That they’re supportive of this?”

Victoria looked back at the e-mail. “Not just supportive, Frank. It looks like they’re  _coaching_  him. The shit his dad is always pushing him to do? I think this . . . might be it.”

Victoria picked up a note from the desk and started reading it more carefully, trying to prove her hypothesis. At the same time, Max opened up Victoria’s binder, but thankfully found it empty. Of course she did. She closed it back up, and looked along the spine where  **Victoria**  was written. It was written on a little white card fit into a sleeve. However, she noticed that the card had the impressions of ink on the back side of it, she she slid her finger into the sleeve, pulled out the card, and flipped it over. And now it read  **Kate.**

“This is why Nathan drugged Kate. And probably why he drugged Dana, too.”

Victoria was already there in her thinking, especially as Victoria pulled a note off of the screen monitor and read it. “Look, it’s more than that - it’s addressed to Nathan, talks about guiding him . . . and then says he’s on his own. He’s being coached.”

Max went and grabbed two more binders, these labeled Lynn and Megan. She handed one to Victoria and started to finger her way through them. 

It was more of the same - terrible images of girls either bound or drugged or both while posed in that white corner of the room featuring a variety of shots, although many seemed to involve the girls being just conscious enough to have their eyes staring into the camera. It was like fear trapped in an immobile body.  
They laid them out. Frank looked at them briefly, but mostly focused on Rachel. He did notice one thing, though. “These are all here, in this room. The photos are in the room, and he takes the shots in this room. Except this one.” Frank pointed at the photo of Rachel and Nathan, their bodies like dolls, intertwined but inanimate.

“I fucking know that spot,” Frank said. “That’s the junkyard. I’ve got to get there.”

And just like that, Frank was  _gone_. Vanished. One moment he stood between the two girls, and the next . . . there was no Frank. There was no sound, no nothing, only the sudden and absolute lack of his presence.

The girls jumped. “What the fuck was that?!” Cried Max, recoiling from the spot where Frank had just been. Victoria pushed against the ground, rolling away.  
But there was nothing. He simply was not there.

And then, Max’s phone vibrated.

 

> **Frank:**  Im at the junkyard. Get out of there. Dont worry about what just happened. Dont call the police. Not yet.

Max was not sure how not to worry, but she relayed the message to Victoria.

Victoria’s hands flew up in the air. “Whatever. I’m an empath, Nathan does . . . this shit, you can see the future, none of this makes sense. Let’s just get out of here.”

Still, Victoria hesitated on the note she tore from the monitor, and after a moment, put it in the breast pocket of her button-up. “We’ve got to get this all cleaned up,” she said, “like we were never here. If we don’t want to be found out, it’s got to be just like it was.”

And so they did. The binders back in the right order, the papers they had found back in the right places (minus the one in Victoria’s pocket), the computer back to the page it had been on and on sleep mode. Max took several shots of the contents of the binder, and, to her revulsion, found the  **Victoria**  one filled with images of Kate . . . the Kate who had killed herself.  
They closed up the bunker behind them, the hatch as well, fit the lock back the hatch door (though it was broken), replaced the hook, closed up the barn, and drove away.

When they were back on the high way, they could not believe that the past hour of their lives had even been real.

 


	2. Wednesday Morning (Contingency)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max receives an important call, and Victoria makes an agreement with Frank. Then, Victoria, Kate, and Max begin to plan against Nathan and Sean Prescott.

They were almost back to Blackwell before Victoria remembered the note in her pocket, retrieved it, and handed it off to Max. “Here, look this over,” she said. “Whoever wrote it is Nathan’s mentor - we’ve got to find him before Frank does anything stupid.”

Max agreed, and began to read it over. In total, it read:

> _Nathan,_
> 
> _I told you never to call me using your phone, stick with the disposable ones I gave you. I don’t want to hear you screaming out my name in a public place, which you have stupidly done before._
> 
> _I haven’t set this all up and shared my vast wisdom, just so you can fuck it up with your teen-rage.  
>  We can accomplish a lot together, but you have got to let me guide you._
> 
> _Or you’re on your own._

Max read it once to herself, then once aloud. Then, they started to brain storm a little about its contents.

“So, you’re right, this isn’t all of Nathan’s project. Somebody else has been doing this for a while, and they’re teaching him how to do it.” Max was significantly more afraid at that idea and what they had seen in the Dark Room - that not only was Nathan exactly what they had feared he might be, but that this was happening on a scale much larger than they had imagined. And Nathan had repeatedly failed in his drugging attempts because he was a newbie (thank God), but whoever had filled all those binders of girls . . . wasn’t.

Victoria nodded, leaning, exhausted, against her car door as she drove. “It’s got to be his dad. He’s always been pushing him to conform to his expectations, and Nathan’s e-mails definitely suggested something like that. And, a little before we were attacked, Nathan said his dad had been coming down on him for ‘fucking up’ recently . . . I think he may have been talking about Dana and Kate.”

It was quiet almost the entire way until they parked in the Blackwell lot. They played a little music to fill the silence but they ultimately weren’t sure how to process everything they’d just seen.

Victoria started. “So . . . does this mean that Frank can teleport? I mean, what the fuck happened in there?”

Max looked at her messages to Frank. “Well . . . I mean, I guess? With what’s been happening, can we really pretend that’s the weirdest thing that’s happened?”

Victoria glared over at the strange, strange brunette. “Fuck yes we can. At least there’s some precedent for our shit - Spirit Science and Jesus-y precedent, but there is. But, like, what?”

And that’s when the phone in Max’s hand rang. Which, honestly, happened pretty rarely. She stared down at the icon of Frank for a moment, and then tapped the green button to talk to him.

 _Max:_  “Frank? What’s going on?”

 _Max:_  “Oh my god, what?”

 _Max:_ “Where are you?”

 _Max:_  “Ah, okay, shit, shit, shit. What do we do?”

Max was clearly escalating towards a hysteric response, and Victoria reached over to place a hand on her knee in comfort but Max didn’t notice. Her body was rigid and she was panicking.

 _Max:_  “Frank, that’s a seriously fucking bad idea. We can’t do that.”

There was screaming on the other side of the phone, and Victoria recoiled, but Max just let it into her ear despite the fact that it had to be painful at that range.

 _Max:_  “Frank, they fucking killed her! Please, let’s just go to the police. You can’t do this.”

There was more screaming, and Max just started essentially cry-speaking in response.

 _Max:_  “Please don’t please don’t please don’t. I can’t do this.”

Victoria was pretty sure she knew exactly what had happened. She was filled with dread and panic, and with that and Max’s words, she knew what had happened. Rachel was dead. Rachel had to be dead. But something about that gave her an icyness. She reached and laid her hand over Max’s on the phone.

“Max, give me the phone,” she commanded. And, after a second, Max did just that, and Victoria pulled the phone to her ear.

 _Victoria:_  “Rachel’s dead, isn’t she?”

 _Frank:_  “That’s fucking what I said. And I’m going to kill everyone who had a part in it.”

 _Victoria:_  “Frank - don’t you touch Nathan. We kept looking after you . . . left. Whatever that fucking room is, it isn’t his. Somebody took Rachel, and they took all of those other girls, and they’ve been doing it for years.”

Frank was breathing heavily, but he didn’t scream in response like he did to Max. His response came in a burst, and then slow and even.

 _Frank:_  “FUCK!! . . . fine. You find me a name. You find me who got Nathan to do this, who took Rachel, who buried her in the fucking ground, and I won’t touch Nathan. But the that name is dead, you hear me?”

 _Victoria:_  “I hear you.”  _Silence._  “I’ll help you. But if this is going to come down on us, all of us, you can go fuck yourself. We’ll go the police. We’ll text you when we’ve got something.”

She hung up before he could respond.

Max stared at Victoria, shocked and frightened. But Victoria’s face was nothing more than the flat line of her mouth and the fury of her eyes. She could feel Max’s fear, all of it, but it could not paralyze her. “Tori, are you serious? Are you really going to help him?”

Victoria just stared back. “Somebody killed Rachel. Then they made my best friend part of their sick world. Then they decided to take me, to take Kate, to take Dana. I don’t care if it’s his dad or not - if he wants to put them in the ground, I’ll help.”

\--

The first thing to do would be to get into Nathan’s room. They knew whoever was coaching Nathan was giving him disposable phones, and Nathan didn’t carry several phones around with him. But, for obvious reasons, this involved not getting caught. This meant that they needed as many people out of the boys’ dorm as possible to avoid drawing attention to themselves. It was about seven o’clock now, so immediately was out of the question. They would have to wait until the free period where AP English typically was on Thursdays to get in - there were few boys in AP English (Warren, Nathan, Hayden, and Trevor were notables). Nathan was in the hospital, Warren could be easily bought off, Hayden could be distracted, Trevor might be tricky.

But, really, the first thing to do was to get to the girls’ dorm and try and act like they hadn’t been out at night. Victoria held onto Max while she calmed down, but they needed to move quickly.

Luckily, the only person up and moving around at this hour was Samuel, who ordinarily would be feeding squirrels right now. But, instead, they saw him in the corner of the courtyard off by Tobanga, collecting rocks. This seemed pretty unusual to them, but it seemed to be keeping him occupied, so they tiptoed their way into the girls’ dorm. It was a sleepy morning, although there were signs people were getting up all around. What they did hear as they walked down the hall was a single shower on, which meant that Kate was on her typical schedule. That was good.

\--

As they got dressed and ready for the day, Max took the time to shoot Warren Graham a text. She remembered what Other Max had said about him: that he’d helped her understand what was happening. Warren couldn’t be too different in this reality.

> Max: so, warren, say somebody could see multiple versions of reality. What would that mean?
> 
> **Warren:**  omg  
>  **Warren:** It’s 7:06am  
>  **Warren:**  That’s a 1:30am question  
>  **Warren:**  You mean like, observe the cat both dead and alive?
> 
> **Max:**  i guess? You mean schrodinger, right?
> 
> **Warren:**  Yeah. I mean, if they saw two realities, their reality probably would have been created from a binary situation like the cat, but if they saw more, it could mean they were in a reality created from a complicated variable.
> 
> **Max:** uhhhh?
> 
> **Warren:**  Why, what are you watching?
> 
> **Max:** probably nothing you’ve heard of. It’s pretty out there.
> 
> **Warren:** Okay, like, Donnie Darko is hardly out there, but whatever.   
>  **Warren:**  Anyway, yeah, if that person were to observe multiple states simultaneously it would probably be because they were exempt from the fissure of realities: you know, Chosen One status.   
>  **Warren:** Don’t know why that would happen unless the realities were created due to time travel and some conflict had to be resolved.
> 
> **Max:** so what, it’s like the War Games computer trying to play Tic-Tac-Toe?
> 
> **Warren:** Yeah, kinda. Except the universe acts more like a quantum computer than a digital one so you’d get a lot of realities and potentially a lot of overlap for that whole Chosen One character.  
>  **Warren:**  Are you writing a young adult fiction novel?
> 
> **Max:** thanks, Warren.

So, at some point in her past, Max had made a choice, and realities diverged. Now, reality was trying to make something go right. Other Max had said that Nathan shot Chloe, but that she’d stopped it . . . did that mean that Other Max was a time traveler? That made . . . no sense. At least, that’s what she told herself. But she was perceiving multiple realities, there was no question to that. She just didn’t know why. But she did know that, whatever the choice was, it resulted in Chloe never being in an accident. No wonder she would have chosen to use time travel to change the past - she would do anything to keep Chloe from the slow death she was to endure.

\--

When Max entered the shower room, she was surprised to find Victoria, Courtney, and Taylor all arranged in front of the mirror, going about their daily beauty and hygiene routine. Victoria was just wearing the clothes she’d worn to the barn.

“Hey Max! You’re up late,” Taylor greeted. Max was almost always leaving the shower by the time the trio had gotten going.  
Max shrugged. “Yeah just . . . groggy I guess.”  
Victoria was keeping it cool, looking over while she worked on mascara but letting the other girls talk to Max first.  
Taylor seemed surprised. “Well, I guess those extra fifteen minutes work for you: you look super ready for today. And super ready for the End of the World Party!”

Max scratched the back of her neck nervously. “I . . . I don’t think I’m going tonight, actually. I’ve got some stuff . . .” She cut off as Victoria looked straight at her and made a cutting motion in front of her throat.  
Then, Victoria spoke up, as if politely reminding her, “Nah, babe, come on! It can wait until tomorrow, I  _really think we should go_. It’ll be a blast.” She gave Max a meaningful glance, as if to say: roll with it.

Max nodded. “Well . . . okay, yeah. I’ll be there.”

Courtney seemed enthused by this news, and by way of apology for the other day, clapped her hands together rapidly in excitement and pranced over to Maxine. “ohmygod good thank you that would have been so weird if you didn’t come. Hey, why don’t you come by my room after school and we’ll get you all dressed up? You can totally surprise Victoria and it’ll be so cool - she’ll be too busy setting stuff up to intrude. What do you say?”

Courtney clearly was feeling guilty, but Max could not understand why Victoria thought this was appropriate. Nevertheless, Max looked Victoria in the eye, and Victoria just gave a nod in response. She wanted this . . . Max could not tell why. But she trusted her girlfriend. Somehow, across these days of being deceived and frightened, she had come to trust her unlike anyone else.

“Yeah, Courtney. That would be rad. I’ll see you before the party: say, six?”

Courtney laughed at Max trying to use slang without sounding ridiculous. “Yeah, all right Mad Max, it’ll be great.”

\--

When Max was out of the shower, she found that she had a new text from Victoria.

> **Victoria:** We’re going to need Kate as a look out. Nobody would ever suspect her of anything. I can pay off Hayden. Warren won’t say shit. But we can’t count on anyone else.

But that actually gave Max an idea. She opened up her contacts and found Dana.

> **Max:**  hey dana. You and trevor are seeing each other now, right?
> 
> **Dana:**  Oh yeah max. y?
> 
> **Max:**  we found out what was going on with nathan. And we’re going to fix it. But we need trevor to not pay too much attention to the dorms this morning.
> 
> **Dana:**  What did you guys find?  
>  **Dana:**  NVM. I dont want to know. Ill do it

Things were coming together.

\--

Max didn’t see Victoria or Kate at breakfast in the cafeteria. It was hardly unusual to not see Victoria, but Kate was in there virtually every morning, as deviation was not really something that appeared in her blood. She always played violin or drew while everyone was out at breakfast, then swooped in just at the end of the breakfast period to grab her food as other people were clearing out. However, Courtney and Taylor were in there.

Max figured out why as soon as she returned to her room. Victoria was sitting at Max’s computer while Kate was on her couch. Kate seemed upset.

Max sloughed off her bag as she entered. “You told her,” was all she said as she entered, clearly directed at Victoria.

Victoria turned around in Max’s computer chair. “I did.” Max also noticed that she had Tumblr and a few other sites open, all with what looked like documents in creation.

Max looked to Kate now. “Are you okay with what she’s doing? You can’t condone this.” She was looking for an alliance.

Kate’s lips pursed. It reminded Max a little of Victoria, but it wasn’t the automatic, fighting response of Victoria. It was resolve. She had never seen it on Kate’s face before. “I don’t condone violence, Max. But I will help you find more information. I’m not going to talk to anyone until we know what’s going on, otherwise we’re all in danger.”

Max did not need to be an empath for this. Victoria had told her about the binder labeled for herself. Kate wanted to protect Victoria, just like they wanted to protect her. It occurred to her, then, what sort of bond the three of them were forming. In a matter of days, they had become people they trusted, even when there was clear danger. They would fight for each other. They’d fight for the girls of this school. And they would fight for all of the girls they had never known who ended up in those binders.

“All right,” Max said, finally. “What’s the plan?”

Victoria seemed delighted by this question, despite how ridiculously out of their depth they were. “We’ve dealt with nearly all of the boys in the dorms this morning. Most will be in class. Hayden will be stoned playing  _Dark Souls_. Warren won’t oppose anyone snooping through Nathan’s stuff, nor, I imagine, will David deCosta. I don’t know what to do about Trevor-”

“I handled Trevor,” Max interjected.  
Kate sort of looked at them in awe.

“Nice going there, Super Max. As for physically getting into his room, I hope your whole camera-vision thing can help us there: I mean, it got us into that bunker, right? What’s a door to that?” Victoria seemed way too calm, and it was sort of creeping Max out. At the same time, it almost seemed as if this were the sort of thing just waiting inside of Victoria, the sort of thing she was always capable of - controlling the circumstances until she needed to pull strings. She knew her resources and how to use them.

Max pointed to the computer. “So why are you on my Tumblr?”

Victoria smiled, as if she were the most brilliant creature on the planet. “For your photos. If something goes wrong - your camera is destroyed, or Frank gets caught - we need back-up. I deleted everything in your queue and set it from 7am to 8am, so we can have a message that gets out with everything we’ve found even if something happens. That includes your photos, everything. If I can get into Nathan’s computer, I’ll screen shot his emails too and add them to this queue.”

Max took crawl-paced steps over to Victoria, but when she reached her, she just leaned down and kissed her fiercely.   
“You’re fucking amazing!” she exclaimed when the kiss broke.

Kate sort of cleared her throat after a moment.

Victoria shook her head, clearing it of the weird high she was getting from her anxiety mixed with her feelings of power in the moment. “Yeah, so, we also don’t want to run into faculty, so Kate will text us if anyone enters the boys’ dorm that we don’t expect.”

Now Max made her way over to Kate, and hugged tightly. Kate hugged her right back, somehow smiling. “You’re amazing, Kate. I can’t believe you’re helping us do this.”  
Kate’s reply was unexpected. “You’re not the only ones who can be heroes, Max.”


	3. The Next Step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Victoria collect more information and begin to put pieces together

It started with Kate walking out with her book for her English report (which she’d already finished but it wasn’t like anyone else knew that) onto the bench on the distant side of the courtyard. After about a minute, she fished out her phone and dropped it into the book, just observing the boys’ dorm. When it all seemed clear, she texted Max the go-ahead. Then, the two girls made their way out of the dorm and into the courtyard.

This would have been all well and fine, except for the snag that appeared just a few paces away from the door of the boys’ dorm. Descending the stairs of Principal Well’s on-campus home came Mark Jefferson, and, upon noticing Max and Victoria, made his way straight to them. This alerted Kate, but she just tried to keep her head down.

“Hey Max! And Victoria. How are you doing?”

Max rather immediately looked away from him to try and not have the guilt all over her face read. “Oh, hi Mr. Jefferson. We’re doing okay.”

He paused a moment to look at both of them. Victoria knew nothing read on her face - this was a skill of hers. But Max . . .  
Jefferson spoke up again, “Max, are you sure you’re all right?”

Max nodded, but fidgeted with her hands. “Yeah, it’s just been weird since the other night. It’s like nothing’s happened but . . .” While she clearly meant to suggest the night with Nathan, Victoria knew exactly what she was referring to - you know, that thing approximately four hours ago.

Jefferson nodded, still paying very little attention to Victoria. “I know. Lame as it sounds, life has to go on.”

“Yeah . . .” she continued. She just wanted to cut it off there.

“Well, I won’t keep you guys,” he said, taking a step back to indicate he was going to head towards the campus. “Remember,” he started, “I’m going to announce the winner of the ‘Everyday Heroes’ contest tonight at the party, so I hope you’ll be there to celebrate.”   
This was the first time when he really looked away from Max and made eye contact with Victoria, but again, Victoria could get no sense of what he was feeling. Just her nerves and giddiness.

“Oh, we will be, don’t worry about that,” Victoria said. “The thing would basically crumble if both me and Nathan weren’t there.”  
Jefferson laughed sort of awkwardly. “Well, that’s for sure. Hey, Kate!”

This exclamation surprised Kate, who looked up from her book immediately. She hadn’t even realized he noticed she was there.

“You’ll be there, too, right? This is a big chance for everyone who entered.” Despite what he was saying, he wasn’t moving his body entirely towards her - that still faced towards Max and Victoria. It was a little strange, because it boxed her out while he was inviting her.

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’m really up for any more parties. I’ll have someone text me the results, it’s no problem.”

He chuckled a little, just enough to appreciate the comment without it, you know, being funny, and said, “Well, that’s probably a smart idea. I’ll see you two at the party.”

Victoria’s arms were crossed, but she was happy their repertoire was more positive than it had been this week. “Yeah you will. And you better dance with us at least once.”

He laughed in the goofy, evasive way of a teacher who doesn’t want to reprimand a student for clearly inappropriate behavior but also wants to shut it down, and began walking away. “Oh, you don’t want to watch the old hipster trying to keep up with the kids. I have some pride. Be seeing you.” His eyes traced across them, Kate included, and then he turned entirely and walked towards the campus.

\--

As the girls entered the dorm, they made an effort to close the heavy door quietly, and to pay attention to their surroundings. Luckily, they both knew Nathan’s room number, and crept forward.  
Luckily, their assumptions and planning were rewarded. Off to their right was Trevor’s room, and there was an independent, deep breathing sound coming from there. Dana had him occupied. Further in, when they found Nathan’s room, Max moved out of sight and Victoria knocked on Hayden’s room. He appeared a few seconds later, and behind him a dusty gray avatar atop an equally boring-looking rendition of a ruined castle stood. Victoria unbuttoned the top button of her shirt, reached into her bra, and removed a small bag of weed.

“Here, Hayden. This is a gift for the party.”

He eyeballed it for a second, then just shrugged and nabbed it. “All right Victoria, nice. This looks like some daaaaank OG bud. Doesn’t Nathan generally handle stuff like this though?”

Victoria nodded. “Yeah, well, he’s indisposed at the moment. I’m keeping stuff neat while he’s out.”

He grinned goofily. “Well, right on. Thanks. I’ll see you tonight, then.”

“Oh yeah.”

He closed the door, and Max emerged a moment later from around the corner. The two looked at Nathan’s door.  
First, Victoria tried the easiest thing - just opening it. No cigar.   
Next, Max pulled out her camera, took a step back, and framed the doorway. Nothing appeared for a moment, but then she saw the spectre of herself - today wearing the exact same clothes as her - picking up the fire hydrant next to Nathan’s door and break it open.

Max whispered, “We have to break it open.”

Victoria looked at her with a look of bemusement. “After the finesse at the barn - that’s it? Break the door down?”

Max pointed out the fire extinguisher. Victoria just sort of shrugged, and lifted the, apparently unprotected, extinguisher off of its hook.

And that’s when Warren Graham exited his room. Victoria was hoisting up the fire extinguisher at Nathan’s door while Max held her camera out in front of her chest.

He had his phone in his hand and he immediately paused. He was wearing yet another ridiculous meme shirt. “Uh,” he emitted.  
They just sort of stood there awkwardly.  
“It’s, um,” Max started. “It’s for a good cause.”

Warren continued to stand there, but after a moment, he shrugged and gestured back at his door. On it was a heavily defaced photo of himself that he’d apparently left there for a while. It read  **“Beta Phag”**  in such a way that clearly indicated whoever left it spent too much time on 4chan.

“See you in Grant’s,” he issued to Max, and then returned to his phone, walking on by.

They waited until they heard the door swing shut after him, and then Victoria slammed the extinguisher down on the handle until the door could just swing open. They moved inside, closing the room back up as well as they could after Victoria put the extinguisher back.

It was always . . . a little creepy to be in Nathan’s room, which is why Victoria’s and Max’s were more popular places to be. Nevertheless, he was pretty unparalleled when it came to getting stoned and watching old eighties movies and creepy-shit anime thanks to his projector.

“I’ll get on the computer, you look for the phone,” Victoria said, crossing the room and settling into the computer chair.

Meanwhile, Max noticed more about Nathan’s design choices in the room than she usually did. There was, perhaps, most obviously the painting of a woman’s back in intense relief as her body was contorted by rope bondage, but that pretty much left everyone on a sliding scale somewhere between disturbed and aroused. What she had not entirely thought to pay attention to before were all the items in his library he had chosen to collect instead of pirate - almost all of them dark, psychological thrillers, and he’d purchased dozens in the past several months. While it had always been a genre that seemed to appeal to him, Victoria had indicated before that his more obsessive purchasing of it seemed new.

Max started with a technique she had learned in d&d from Warren: Right wall follow. That, first, as mentioned, led her eyes to the painting of the woman, but then it led her to a more useful piece of furniture: his dresser. She immediately began to sort through it, and located a small envelope in the third one down. Opening it up, she felt rather sick.

There were seven images of Dana in here, in full color, as she had been posed on the floor of Nathan’s room, as well as the dorm bathroom. While she found it odd these images were in color and all those in the bunker had been in black and white, she realized that he’d probably printed these out here, where he didn’t have the printing and editing capabilities they’d seen in the bunker.

She held them out one by one, snapping a picture of each before she re-ordered them and put them back in the envelope.

“I’m on his e-mail. I’ll screen shot everything that looks important and put it on your queue. It’ll take a few minutes.”

Max nodded, but didn’t bring up the pictures just yet. She needed to be quick.

She searched under the bed and pillows, as well as in the pillows and between the sheets. Nothing but a porno magazine. Onward, she found a collection of photos he’d taken, his wall of DVDs and Blu Rays, as well as his triptych. There was no space in between the DVDs large enough. She looked to see if any of them were out of line with the others, but they were all neatly organized. It was pretty freaky how geometrically pleasing this corner of Nathan’s room was as opposed to virtually all other aspects of his room and art.

It was within a few minutes that Max found herself crouching down in front of the couch, examining the scrape marks in the carpet. Somebody had repeatedly pulled the couch out like it were on a door hinge, exposing one side. She duplicated this action, pulling out the sofa, and checked behind it. A bag that looked as neat and as compressed as an evidence bag was taped to the back of the sofa. She grabbed the side of it and pulled it forward a little, and saw that inside of it lay a small, black phone.

“I’ve got the phone,” Max reported, tearing the phone from couch and stuffing it into her hoodie.

“Good. Let me log you out and clear the search history. We can document the rest from your room.”

\--

By the time Kate returned to Max’s room without seeming to be with the other two, Max was just laying out the images of Dana onto her queue, as well as individually tagging everyone she knew from Blackwell and Arcadia Bay in general in each and every message

“Oh my god . . .” Kate’s breath entered sharply as she saw what Max was arranging. “That would have been me.” She stared at the vacant eyes in the pictures as well as the pained posture that accompanied them, but then Max opened up a new tab to hide the images from Kate.

“It wasn’t, Kate. And it’s not going to be anyone after today.” The resolve that Max had last night was starting to come back to her. She could see the door to safety and she was running towards. The vengeance might not be her quest, it might not be fury driving her, but she would protect the girls of this school at all costs.

Victoria was flipping through the phone’s text messages. A few in particular seemed important. “So, it looks like Nathan muddied things a little - he texted Frank from this phone back in August about selling him dilute shit, which Frank mentioned.” She continued for a bit, and then said, ‘bingo’ quietly, before looking up at the other girls. 

“Here, listen to this,” she said, and then began reading.

**“Please do not contact me at work. I’ve told you this before and being high is not an excuse. This is a business not a hobby.”**  
  
**“You want me to treat you like an adult who can get things done on his own? Impress me. I’d like nothing more than to be proud of you. I’m not there yet.”**

There was silence for a moment while they digested what that meant.

So Victoria said the first, obvious thing. “The only business I knew Nathan was part of was Frank’s. This is not Frank’s texting. So they’ve got to be referring to the photos.”

Max exhaled slowly, sinking against the desk. “They’re distributing them. Probably online.”

Kate seemed confused. “So, wait. It’s not just Nathan and his dad? This is some photography ring? And they’re making money?”

Victoria, as she was the one with the phone, lingered over the messages, reading them again. “Well, a business doesn’t have to deal in money - they could use the pictures for blackmail or services, things harder to trace than money.”

Kate, as she was the one who, you know, had been a resident of Arcadia Bay all her life, had something to contribute, “But the Prescotts are a real estate family and public figures. How could they risk something like this?

Victoria did not exactly have a response, but she did click on the messages to get the date and time they were sent. “These both came the day Dana was abducted. I think . . . when Nathan failed to get Kate, his dad came down hard on him. He tried to impress him by dosing Dana. He messed it up or Frank sold him something impure, and she woke up. That’s why he was on edge all weekend . . .”

Victoria finally started to see her experiences with Nathan pairing up with the events of this villainous Nathan she had been talking about this whole time, but hardly connecting him to her Nathan. But how they were becoming a more cohesive person. “When the boys attacked us, Nathan said not to call the police because his dad would kill him. It meant Nathan got caught, and the students he was supposed to prey on knew it.”

They sat in silence. 

Max started in silence. “So, Sean Prescott, the multi-millionaire real estate tycoon and political magician . . . runs a photography ring around kidnapping and filming high school girls.” It was a deadpan summary that left them in a very poor situation. They had no direct proof, but the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.

And then, “FUCK!” cried Victoria. The other two girls jumped, but stayed attentive, as she was clearly preparing to say something. “That’s why the police don’t stick up to Nathan. Why Principal Wells won’t expel him. Why he closes crazy business deals. He must involve people in his business or just flood them with cash - two avenues to one victory. Cross him publicly and you’re out of a job, cross him privately and you end up with illicit photographs on your person. Exploiting underage girls with direct photo evidence is a brilliant way to take down any public figure, and money lets you own them. The Prescott family is just run by a greedy, lowlife fuckbag.”

While that . . . sort of made sense, it did not entirely ring true to any of them. For Victoria, there was something about the phone that seemed . . . off to her. Like it was familiar, but she couldn’t remember where it was from. For Kate, it was the simple fact that no scandal like that had ever occurred while she was alive, and she couldn’t believe that, whatever this criminal ring was, that it was so functional as to never had somebody go astray. And, to Max, she approached it from a photographic perspective - the images of Dana were so much more poorly done, not just in terms of equipment, but in terms of skill. Nobody got as good as Sean Prescott would have had to have been to collect the shots of Rachel, Kate, and those girls Megan and Lynn without any level of public acknowledgement. The fact that Nathan was involved in the arts aspect of Blackwell was  _odd_ , really - most of the family was known for their involvement in law or business.

So, none of them entirely believed it, but they all sort of went with it. 

“So, what do we do? How do we stop a man like that?” Kate sounded really concerned, because even with the small body of evidence they had collected, virtually no part of her believed they could take on somebody like Sean Prescott.

Victoria’s steely eyes met Kate’s. She felt all of her fear, her desperation, her confusion, and her awe. It combined with her own, but for some reason, knowing that it was Kate’s only made her more confident in what she said. “We go to class. We text Frank using this phone who is responsible, and hope he’ll help us gather more evidence - his distribution of the drugs could be invaluable when paired with the names on those binders. He can’t hope to just walk up and shoot Sean fucking Prescott. He’ll want his revenge, and he won’t get it if he goes to jail. He’ll never get out.”

They agreed. There was nothing they could do better than that, honestly. This whole thing was bigger than them, and Victoria was nearly impossible to argue with. Still, another thought nagged at Max’s mind. They’d found the dark room. They’d found Rachel. But still, they had no answers to the storm. Perhaps, the only solution was to run from this - from the storm, from everything.

But she didn’t speak up to say that. She was being moved by forces more powerful than she.

Victoria adjourned them with such a strange sense of officialism. “Let’s get to class. I’ll text him at lunch.”


	4. The Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max receives a text from Chloe, and hurries to the hospital. While there, she and Kate confront Nathan Prescott, and Victoria drops a bombshell.

School passed slowly. There was tension between Max and Warren throughout science, even though they sat several tables away from each other. Warren couldn’t understand the sort of reversal it would take for one of Nathan’s friends to force their way into his room while he was hospitalized, and she was worried about getting caught. Luckily, Stella was Warren’s labmate, and Max was paired up with this skater kid who ran with Trevor and Justin who looked like he’d eaten shit in the past few days - a huge bandaid covered his cheek, and he looked sort of terrible in general.

Overall, the day was pretty nondescript but tense. At lunch, Victoria used the disposable phone to text Frank that they’d found, to little surprise, who had been coaching Nathan: Sean Prescott. He sent back some obscenities but then said he’d get to planning. He wasn’t going to give up on vengeance because it was hard.

During the lunch hour, the girls just hung out on the campus, as Victoria did not seem to want to leave it. She, Max, Courtney, and Taylor sat and discussed the End of the World party for most of the hour, but Max knew her attention was minimally present - she just kept looking around the quad or down at the phone, rarely contributing.

It wasn’t until Language of Photography that something really changed. And, as things had changed many times in the past few days, change came in the form of a text message.

> **Chloe:**  Chloe is in the hospital. We think you should visit after your classes if you can.

Max started typing a response, but Jefferson was on her quickly. “I see you Max Caulfield! Put your phone away.”  
Despite how important that message seemed, Max was not someone who effectively resisted the demands of authority, so she slipped her phone back in her pocket.

It looked like she’d have to do things the old fashioned way. While she should have been taking notes, she instead filled her margins with messages to Victoria.

 _“Chloe is in the hospital. I’ve got to see her.”_  
“I’ve got to go set up the party. I’ll explain later.”  
“OK.”  
“Take Kate. Keep her in your sight.”

Max nodded, but didn’t exactly have a way to tell Kate in class that she was reserving her time after school.

Near the end of class, Jefferson broke from his discussion of photography directly. “Now, I know tonight is a big night, so I’m not going to keep you to the bell. I know you all put so much work into the Everyday Heroes contest, and I’m proud of your performances so early in the year. I just want to let you know that, whoever wins, you are all extraordinarily talented, and we will continue to build your resumes throughout the year. This competition is not the only track to success in photography, and I’m confident that, by the end of the year, all of you will have the skills you need to pursue a higher education in photography, or be employed straight out of high school. This is a boost, not the finish line.”

It had never really occurred to Max how frequently Mr. Jefferson seemed to focus on her when speaking to the class in general, but since Victoria had mentioned it Monday, she had become extremely aware of it. She was sort of starting to believe the rumor of his relationship with Rachel . . . oh,  _god_ , if they’d had a relationship, how would he feel to know that Rachel was dead?

\--

Thanks to Jefferson’s early release, Max and Kate were able to make the 3:45pm bus, which got them rather close to the hospital. Max continued to text while they were riding the bus.

> **Max:**  william, i’m coming to the hospital right now with a friend. Is chloe okay?
> 
> **Chloe:** It’s complicated. We’ll explain when you get here. We’re on the third floor, but you should be able to ask for us - lord knows they know us by name at the front desk.
> 
> **Max:** OK, we’ll be there soon.

Max was concerned, leaning forward in her seat in the bus while Kate tried to scratch her back to soothe her. It was hard to be soothed when it felt like every ounce of chaos that could possibly be squeezed out of Arcadia Bay was filling her up. It would honestly be inappropriate of her to be soothed, but Kate didn’t know what else to do.  
Later into the bus ride, Kate gave up the back scratch, but she asked, “Max, will you pray with me? You don’t have to say anything, just hold my hand and think something positive.”

Max was willing to go with anything. “All right, Kate.”  
Kate removed her cross and held it in one hand, and then held Max’s hand with the other. Sitting on the bus, just holding her hand, Max watched Kate’s lips move. She wondered how Kate could pray at a time like this. She did not understand how anyone could find time to talk to god when they were surrounded by injustice. She didn’t understand that that was what held Kate together. Max fought with emotion, with her belief in her Other Self, and with a belief in herself as well. But Kate carried on with a force independent of her. Destiny, maybe. Faith, she guessed. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something Max could see, but she knew Kate was filled with it.

\--

As they turned the corner near Chloe’s room, they found William out waiting for them in the hall. He stood up from his chair as soon as he noticed them.  
“Hey there Max - and, ah, Kate, right? Thanks for coming, kids.”

Max nodded, hands clutching the strap of her messenger bag. “Of course, William. What’s wrong with Chloe? Is she okay?”

William seemed pretty perplexed by this question. “She’s okay. Well, we think she is. We’re . . . really not sure, to be honest.”

Max was confused, knowing he wasn’t trying to be cryptic. “Why was she admitted?”

This seemed to be something he could respond to, but it still left him scratching his head. “Well, see, this morning . . . Chloe’s arm moved.”

“Like . . . a twitch?”

He shook his head. “No, like she moved it. She - well, we think she - moved her arm. She didn’t seem to know what was going on but she lifted it.”

Max was pretty shocked, as you might imagine, and her hands left the strap as they spread out in front of her, no longer defensive. “Are you saying she can move her arms?”

This question seemed to panic him a little, and he gestured towards himself but his hands were rigid and open, like claws. “I don’t know! That’s what we’re here to figure out, I guess. Things have been going downhill for so long and this is just out of nowhere.”

“Can I see her?!”

William nodded. “Yeah, it’s Joyce in there with her right now. She’s going to have a reflex test here soon but for now . . .” he indicated towards the door, and Max headed straight in. Kate smiled awkwardly and sort of waved at William, but then entered after Max, William trailing close behind.

\--

“Chloe!” Max sort of yelped, and rushed over to them. Joyce sat on the far side of the room in one of the provided chairs, some book by Michael Chrichton in hand.

Chloe was looking . . . better somehow. They were hooked up to a lot more monitors and reclining in a hospital bed, but there was more color to their face, and there was less of the persistent look of hopelessness in their face. Instead, they just smiled when they saw Max. “Max! Hey! Did my dad explain what was going on?”

Max sort of shook her head, even though he kind of had. She just didn’t understand.  “Not really . . . I heard you moved your arm?”

Chloe’s eyes went wide with excitement. “Yeah, I did, I totally did this morning - like, inches up, not just a twitch.” Kate was a few paces back, but she noticed something that distinctly hadn’t been present last time they met - there was a tremor in Chloe’s hands as they spoke. 

Max swiped hair away from her own face. “How could that even be possible? I thought your nerves were, like, degrading over time?”

Chloe’s eyes read affirmative. “Well, yeah, they totally should be - they haven’t had any input for years. So we’re going to try and test it later - they already did a CT and everything looks pretty . . . same old same old. I’ll probably be a lab rat for the next few days but, I mean, I already was.”

Chloe seemed disproportionately excited in comparison to their parents. Or, perhaps excited wasn’t the right word - William had seemed plenty excited, just not hopeful. It had been a long time since they’d hoped Chloe might regain the use of anything below their neck.

The girls settled in, and William sat next to Joyce.

“You’re Kate, right? Bill said you were at the house last night.”  
Kate nodded affirmative.  
“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, Kate, I’m sorry I wasn’t home, I had to work late at Pan Estates.”

The mention of the major financial project under the leadership of Sean Prescott made both the girls squirm a little, but Joyce read that response incorrectly - as, you know, you might if you didn’t know about that whole secret photography ring thing.

“Oh my god that reminds me - you didn’t tell me that you and Nathan Prescott had been attacked the other night! I heard about it at work last night and you didn’t say anything. Even Bill hadn’t heard about it - and you were with some other girl. Are you okay?”  
Chloe was really quick to speak up, “She was with her girlfriend, mom.”

Joyce just sort of shrugged at off, “Well, that’s not really the point now, is it? How are you doing, Max?”

Kate gave Max a bit of a side-eye at this question, considering how much they knew about Nathan that Joyce and the others didn’t. Max purposefully tried not to look at Kate in response “Victoria and I are all right - just a little shook up, I guess. The guys who attacked us, though, they were after Nathan for some reason.”

Joyce just shook her head, putting her book down. “That’s just a damn shame. The Prescott boy may be a punk, but he doesn’t deserve something like that. Sometimes I’d like the melt the face offa Mr. Prescott but I can’t believe somebody would target a child.”

Chloe sort of whistled, although it didn’t come out very effectively - everyone still got what the croaky sound meant. “Whoah mom, chill it with the ultra violence. You don’t want to scare off Kate - she’s a church girl.”

Kate went a little pink. It seemed ironic that Chloe should be trying to protect Kate when within a few days or hours Kate might be complicit to murder of the exact same person that Joyce wanted to melt, and the awkwardness that Kate felt about that was not something she knew how to handle. “Well, ummm,” Kate started.

Max rescued her, “Well, uh . . . Nathan’s sort of a friend of ours, so we should probably check on him later. Do you know where he is in the hospital?”

Chloe provided a quizzical look, primarily produced by lifting one eyebrow in front of the other. “Oh, I see, can’t just come see me, got to make it an efficient trip.”

Joyce rolled her eyes at her child. “Don’t listen ta them, Max. You could find almost any nurse who could point you to him - any number of people will use an opportunity like this to score brownie points with the Prescotts by showin’ up to give Nathan a gift or somethin - the staff has got to be used to directing people ta him by now.”

Max nodded. “I’ll go during your physical, Chloe. Do you mind if I hold your hand for a little while, Chloe?” This had less to do with what was going on with Chloe and more to do with the circumstances of the day.

“Well, sure, Max. Hey, you never know, I might even be able to hold it back if this holds up.” Chloe smirked, weak though it was.

And she was not entirely wrong. Sometime while Max held Chloe’s hand, she could feel Chloe’s fingers tightening in between hers. The little contractions that allowed it did not last long, but they were there.

\--

“So . . . I’ll see you in a sec?”

Kate shook her head. “No way, Max. You’re not going to see Nathan alone.

Max pursed her lips off to one side of her face, grumpy and contemplating at the same time. “Kate, I’m Nathan’s friend . . . sort of. He tried to kidnap you. I feel like he’ll respond to us very differently.”

Kate folded her arms over her chest, much more assertive than normal. “We stick together, Max.”

Max sighed deeply, recognizing her own words from yesterday. “Shit . . . okay. But I have no idea how Nathan’s going to react. With you there, there’s almost no chance for subtle interrogation.”

“Then let’s not be subtle.”

Max nodded, siphoning off some of Kate’s courage, and then turned and opened the door into Nathan’s hospital room.

“Max? Ra . . . oh, what the fuck?” Nathan’s room looked rather different from Chloe’s clean, neat, and low-traffic one. There was a waste disposal bin by the door that looked like it was filled to overflowing with popped balloons that had once read Get Well Soon! and other forms of bullshit that Nathan had apparently not appreciated.

Nathan’s head was wrapped in bandage, and, although his torso was covered with a hospital gown, Max imagined that most of it was bandaged similarly. It didn’t really appear that he could sit up, but he was propped into a mostly upright position by the bed as well as a set of pillows. From his confusion when they entered, as well as his general state, Max could tell that he was on some sort of sedative or painkiller, which made perfect sense, but it wasn’t exactly a state she’d never seen from him before.

They both moved to the end of his bed, facing directly towards him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, sounding defensive. This was a pretty normal reaction, considering the fact that they were both holding their arms in front of their chests just high enough to be aggressive instead of defensive.

“We want to know why you dosed Dana. Why you dosed Kate.”  
Kate's response was a lot more shocked than his - her eyes went wide and she rapidly lost her composure, staring at Max. Still, Max had resolved that subtlety was out the window.

Nathan, on the other hand, quickly adopted a pissed-off face and a patronizing tone, “What the fuck are you talking about, Caulfield?”

She just stared him down. “I know you dosed Kate at the Vortex Club party two weeks ago, and I know that you dosed Dana at a bar last week.”

Patronizing was starting to slip and pissed off was starting to fill in. “You don’t know shit, Maxine. You think you’re so smart but you’re so fucking stupid. Why don’t you get out of here?” It was clearly not a suggestion, as he pointed at the door.  
Max’s phone vibrated, but she didn’t check it yet.

“I’m stupid? I’m not the one who left Kate after I dosed her - I’m the one who rescued her. I’m not the one who dosed Dana but fucked it up, letting her run out into my dorm room. I’m not the one who tried to take them to a barn in the woods.” She was letting her anger mix with her disbelief at it all, and it was kind of scaring Kate. It looked like it was scaring Nathan, too.

But he rallied. “What the fuck are you even saying? Get the fuck out of here you slanderous piece of shit, you and your church whore, you feminazi fucks.”

And then, for the first time in her life, Max saw Kate get angry. She took a step around the edge of the bed and pointed Nathan straight in the face - this seemed to freak him out a little, as he really hadn’t expected it. “You do not get to talk to me or anyone else that way, Prescott. You don’t have any power over me or anyone else anymore.”

When she got too close, he reached out and swatted her hand away from him really, really hard. “Get away from me you freaks!”  
Kate clutched her wrist and took a step back involuntarily.

“Don’t you touch her!” Max yelled, and they all hung in a brief moment of intense tension - Max and Kate well aware that they couldn’t bring themselves to hurt him, and Nathan perfectly aware he couldn’t hurt them, but both parties wanting to hurt the other.

But Max’s phone buzzed again, and she’s just terrible at resisting its siren call. With an angry grunt, she retrieved it, and saw two new messages.

> **Victoria:**  Jefferson  
>  **Victoria:** It’s fucking Mr. Jefferson. It’s his photos. I can explain in person but it’s fucking Mr. Jefferson’s binders - he’s the one who took Rachel.

Max took a step back involuntarily just like Kate had, as if she’d been struck. Her breath caught and panic started to override her thoughts. That didn’t make any sense. That didn’t make any sense. That didn’t make any sense.

She looked at Kate, who saw her panic and took a step towards her. But Max thought of Victoria, thought of Chloe, thought of her Other Self - everyone she could think of to derive an ounce of strength, and she stepped back up to the end of Nathan’s bed.

“Mark Jefferson. Mark Jefferson’s studio is in the dark room.”

Nathan seemed frozen in blind panic. And, when he responded, it wasn’t with the sort of belligerence that all their previous accusations had caused. He just leaned in his bed and pressed a button on the side of it. Then, he began yelling: “NURSE! NURSE! GET THESE FUCKING PSYCHOS OUT OF MY ROOM!”

While Max and Kate were being removed from the room, Max’s phone buzzed again, although she didn’t take the time to check it. It read:

> **Victoria:** Get back here now!!!


	5. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria confronts the girls with a plan to take care of Mr. Jefferson.

“What did you mean, Mister Jefferson? Why did you say that to Nathan?” Kate and Max were waiting next to the bus stop closest to the hospital. Max had called Warren and promised to get him into the VIP section at the Vortex Club party if he could pick them up ASAP, which he rather surprisingly agreed to. Apparently Stella had taken a job there so he was indisposed.

Max pulled out her phone, opened Victoria’s messages, and handed her phone to Kate. Kate scanned them. “I don’t get why she’d say that,” Kate said, disturbed. Max took her phone back and stuffed it away.

“I don’t know what’s going on with her today. I don’t know why she wants me to go the party when all of this is going on, or what could possibly lead her to believe Mr. Jefferson was involved.” Nevertheless, Max was trying to figure out what could lead her to that conclusion. It might fit the quality of the pictures they’d seen in the bunker, but Mr. Jefferson wasn’t the only passable photographer in a town whose only private school specialized in the arts and sciences.

\--

> **Max:**  i’m so sorry, i had to get back to school to help set up a party. But i’ll be back tomorrow, promise. I’m so excited.
> 
> **Chloe:**  Oh, don’t worry about Chloe - everything’s exciting right now, and she’ll still be excited tomorrow. You’re a good friend, Max.

“Thanks Warren,” Max said, putting her phone away and opening up his car door. Kate nodded appreciatively and opened up her door as well.

“Well, yeah, totally, no problem. I’ll see you guys in like two hours, right?” Warren seemed pretty enthused to go to the party as a VIP, even if he seemed uncomfortable around the Vortex Club as a whole. People had started to fuck with him a lot less since he and Stella started dating, though.

“Not me,” Kate commented, “But the party’s supposed to start at seven, so that would be close.”

Warren wormed his way out of his car and closed the door, leaning against the top of it to talk over to the girls. “Well, that’s a shame, but I’ll still see you there, Max. This is the one where they announce that photo contest, right?”

Kate nodded affirmative. “Yeah, it is. We’ve got to go, Warren - see you later?”

He shrugged with a sort of whimsical expression, “Well, yeah - I’ll be here.”

\--

As the duo made their way onto the campus in front of the pool, they noticed Victoria waiting for them on the fountain and hoofed it over to her, sitting down on either side of her.  
Max began, “So, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Victoria was quiet, her arms folded over her body, right hand clutching something against her leg as she looked out towards the road. It was a moment before she responded much at all. “Look at them. Look at all the photos displayed here on the campus - they’re all Mark Jefferson’s. What do you notice?”

Neither Max nor Kate appreciated this tone, but Victoria today had seemed like their de facto leader, even if they were just a loosely associated group of friends.  
Max started with the easiest bit, as if in class, “Well . . . they’re all black and white.”  
Victoria nodded but did not respond, so Kate continued.  
“They all feature women. Young women.”  
Victoria nodded again, but just kept looking around at the photos, not at her girlfriend or Kate.

Kate got the next detail as well, “Except one! There’s one that looks like a police officer or a security guard.”

“Yeah,” Victoria affirmed, locking her eyes on it. She didn’t want to feel their confusion so she wouldn’t look at them - instead, she wanted to know how it felt when it dawned on them. She wanted to know if they’d feel the same sort of betrayal that she had, or if they’d even believe her.

Max continued to look at the paintings of women. “They’re all in submissive, sort of suggestive positions. If not their posture, their clothes . . . and photographers tend to provide clothes for their models.”

Victoria nodded again. “What’s different about the picture of a man?”

Max answered back, “He’s in a strong, dominant position, and he’s not made to face the camera. The camera is also at a lower position, suggesting power.”

Kate recognized the same thing, although more from Victoria’s explanation Tuesday than familiarity with the technique, as she rarely focused on portraiture.

Victoria finally added something to the conversation - “Richard Avedon once said ‘Sometimes I think all of my pictures are just pictures of me’. I know Mr. Jefferson believes that - he has it taped to his computer monitor. What could we assume about Mr. Jefferson from his pictures?”  Then she uncrossed her hands and held up the disposable phone they’d taken from Nathan’s room.

“Tuesday night, I found a phone identical to this one in Mr. Jefferson’s desk drawer. And that note, that quote from Richard Avedon - it was in this hand writing,” she removed the note they had found in the bunker this morning from her breast pocket and unfolded it, letting everyone read the words.

> _Nathan,_
> 
> _I told you never to call me using your phone, stick with the disposable ones I gave you. I don’t want to hear you screaming out my name in a public place, which you have stupidly done before._
> 
> _I haven’t set this all up and shared my vast wisdom, just so you can fuck it up with your teen-rage.  
>  We can accomplish a lot together, but you have got to let me guide you._
> 
> _Or you’re on your own._

"It’s unsigned, it’s in his hand writing. They each have disposable phones, and if we look at these messages-” Victoria opened the messages up to the two they had read earlier.

> **?:** Please do not contact me at work. I’ve told you this before and being high is not an excuse. This is a business not a hobby.  
>  **?:** You want me to treat you like an adult who can get things done on his own? Impress me. I’d like nothing more than to be proud of you. I’m not there yet.

“- they also have no name, but we can see they come from the same code as this phone - Nathan’s disposable.” She first showed the number it came from, then went into the information and settings portion of the disposable to get the listing of the number it was. The first three digits matched.

Kate’s fingers became locked around her own knees gradually as Victoria talked, while Max’s hands traveled up to her mouth, swiping a finger just under her nose as she breathed out.

Max’s words came out in a rush that sounded an awful lot like a thesis read by a hesitant tenth grader: “He shoots men in dominant, aggressive positions and women in submissive, subservient, and sexualized positions . . . all in black and white.” She also realized something she had been missing that was similar between the pictures in the dark room and the pictures here on the campus - they all turned women’s faces into focal points, but the women were never looking directly back at the camera. Except one - one of Rachel Amber with her hands bound, staring straight at the camera.

Max exhaled slowly, a realization gripping her just like panic did. “He killed Rachel Amber. He was mentoring Nathan, and when he killed her, he took the photo of those two together.”

“Oh my god,” Kate breathed.

Victoria reached out, finally, setting the phone down but placing a knee on both of the girls. “This morning, I realized what Frank told us - that somebody had driven out of the barn last night. And when they did, they left my binder just as it was. There was no sign their plans had changed, even with Nathan in the hospital. They took Rachel from a Vortex Club party. They tried to take you from one,” she squeezed Kate’s knee, “And they still plan on dosing me. Nathan’s dad couldn’t do it . . . but Mr. Jefferson can.”

Both girls looked towards her. She didn’t want to feel their concern or  their fear or yes, as she had felt, betrayal. She didn’t want to feel it but it flowed out of them without any need for eye contact, and the wave of emotion that had hit her earlier struck her anew. She just started to focus on her breathing, as she had done Monday afternoon after coming out of the bathroom. Eight in, six hold, twelve out . . .

Kate practically shouted, “Then you can’t go!”  
Max was quieter, but just as insistent, “Why are we going to the party, then? It’s too dangerous - let’s go to the police!”  
Victoria shook her head, letting herself complete at least one set in her breathing exercise. “We’re talking about one of the world’s most famous photographers and the most powerful man in Arcadia Bay, either of whom could have any number of cops or people in the community in their pocket. On the internet, like we plan, we might be able to get this story out of the county. But we can get Jefferson. We know it was him. We can put him away where he belongs - in hell.”

Kate shook her head in protest. “We can’t! We can’t just kill him. Even if we’re right about everything, we can prove it. This doesn’t have to end in more violence! With Max’s photos . . .”  
Victoria was quick to cut her off. “With Max’s photos, we can make ourselves targets. We can go to the police in the Prescotts’ pocket, hoping they check out the barn before anything happens to the binders. We can hope they find evidence of a crime and tie it to Rachel’s body. Max will become a target once someone tips off the police. Frank will become a target if he tries to testify and explain how they’re taking girls - of whom he can only account for two or three, and that’s if he admits to being a drug dealer AND he’s willing to let go of his vengeance. You’ll become a target by speaking out against the Prescotts; so will Dana! So will, fuck, Chloe’s mom - she’ll lose her job for being a longtime friend of Max’s. There is so much to lose, such a wide margin of error if we give away justice to a bought out police system.”

Max was quiet. She knew, on some level, that Victoria was right about many of these things. Even if the cops couldn’t stand by once they knew about Rachel’s death, actually linking it to Jefferson and the Prescotts would be incredibly difficult. The independent parts of the binders and the body were just that - independent. The only crime that would result in true justice would be murder in the first degree, and they didn’t even have proof that had happened at all.

“You want to make yourself bait,” Max said quietly. She placed her hand over Victoria’s on her leg. Conflict now entered alongside fear. She had none of the vengeful feelings that Frank or Victoria mustered, but she was afraid, so very afraid of what was happening, and she knew, in a big way, there was something they could do to take her fear away.

“Yeah,” Victoria affirmed. “Jefferson will take me back to the barn to photograph me. He won’t have Nathan to fuck it up, so he’ll do it right. You know right where he’ll go, and so will Frank. Frank can ambush him at the barn, clean it all up, and we’ll expose the Prescott barn - we can even plant those photos Nathan took of Dana in the bunker, too, so they’ll get her testimony. After the party, you two can meet up with some other girls . . . have an alibi and everything.”

Kate’s reaction was one of the fear, but Max’s was one of pragmatism.  
Kate: “But that’s way too dangerous . . . he could kill you, too!”  
Max: “Why . . . would we need alibis?”

Victoria turned to look at Max, finally, letting her feelings fill her so that she could address them. Hers were of confusion, fear, anger, guilt, betrayal. “Because I want you to take pictures of Mr. Jefferson and me. Try and document him drugging me, taking me away. We’re going to want to know how he does it, and proof will help. But we want to show you weren’t involved - you’ll release those photos and the others later.”

Then she turned to Kate and absorbed her feelings. She wanted to run, run away. She didn’t want anyone to get hurt. She wanted to feel like this day would end. “None of those other girls were dead - I haven’t even heard any of the others as missing, and Jefferson has been here for two and a half years. I don’t think what happened with Rachel was intentional . . . I’ll be okay. Frank can bring me back here when it’s all over.”

They were all pretty much thinking the same thing, but it was Max who said it: “This is insane.”

Victoria nodded, as if this were a perfectly reasonable assessment. “You’re right, Maxine. You’re right. But this is the best option. I’ll keep you both safe, and I’ll get get revenge for that stupid bitch Rachel . . . for Nathan.”

For a while, they all clung to each other, not knowing what the night would hold. Victoria just held them both close. She could keep them all safe, no matter what. Nobody was going to touch them ever again.

\--

Somebody emerged from the doors of the locker rooms. They didn’t initially hear  them because they couldn’t hear it over the gurgling fountain, but they approached the trio.

“Whoah, hey, hope I’m not intruding on anything.” It was Courtney, clearly perfectly pleased to be intruding on something. Especially something like whatever was happening right here - the three Blackwell lesbians all holding each other after school hours? It was like Victoria had gone out and gotten herself a new trio, only this time it was full of people she could screw.

Ugh . . . she had to stop thinking like that. Victoria wanted to feel like part of something. It was unfair to judge her when she must have felt so alone for the past few years, even in her position of power.

“Hey Court,” Max said, and the other two girls made similar statements, Kate not looking directly at her.

“It’s gonna be a killer party tonight! And, Vicky, shouldn’t you be helping out right now? I’ve got to go get ready . . .” she looked off towards the dorms, but she didn’t see any reaction from Max, like she was expecting. “Hey, Max, remember what I said about dressing you up? Come on, it’s time. And Kate, what about you?”

Kate finally looked up at her, but she was pretty surprised at the address. Courtney almost always addressed her as ‘Katie’ mockingly, but she was keeping a perfectly friendly tone right now. “I . . . I’m not going,” she replied.

Courtney raised her palms up to the height of her shoulders and shrugged dramatically. “Well, that makes sense but, hello, who cares? It’s me, Courtney Wagner, fashion queen of Blackwell and I’m offering you a makeover out of good will.”

Victoria stood up and ran her hands over her clothes, smoothing them.  
Courtney continued to stare down at the remaining girls.

Max sort of shook her head, but not as a negative, but as if she was physically removing shock from her system. “Yeah, okay.”  
Kate was even more shocked, but she was just taking this rare opportunity to meet Courtney’s eyes. “Well . . . thank you, Courtney, I’d be honored.”

Courtney grinned in such a way that was generally reserved for kawaii Japanese pop stars - real, but always as though she were being recorded. “All right, let’s go bee-atches! Ah . . . nevermind that, Kate, it’s endearing.”


	6. Enter the Vortex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Kate get makeovers. Victoria confronts Justin, and then her powers begin to change, altering the moods of everyone around her. They find Mr. Jefferson.

It was a pretty strange situation for Kate. She and Max were seated side by side on stools in front of a large mirror supported by Courtney’s desk, which was so covered in papers and cosmetics that it likely had never been used for school work. Dana was working with her hair, which apparently came before clothes or anything else. The first thing to do had been to remove her hair from its bobby pin constraints that normally kept it so neat and to take a straightener to it. 

Dana and Courtney weren’t exactly friends, but Dana was a huge fan of partying in virtually all forms, so when she saw Kate being dragged into Courtney’s room she could not resist the opportunity to play with a subject nobody in the school had ever gotten to work with.  
And Kate had a wealth of hair, as Dana kept mentioning every minute and a half.

Max’ hair was nearly done in the time that it took to prepare Kate’s - Courtney had decided to put most of Max’s hair back into a ponytail but leave enough to frame her face neatly, which apparently helped to highlight her ‘good features’ - to what degree those words had been genuine was unclear, as Courtney never elaborated.

It was also pretty strange because Kate, after this, would be staying in her room trying not to think about Max and Victoria trying to set up her photography teacher so that a local drug dealer could murder him when he took Victoria back to his secret photographer lair in a hidden bunker underneath a barn owned by Sean Prescott.

“Oh my god, Kate, you know what we should do? Curling. You could probably have a shit-ton of curls, and if you’re not going out tonight, they won’t get the sweat-humidity inside the pool and deflate. It would be so cute.”   
Kate stared back at Dana in the mirror, surprised to see how excited Dana was. “Well … I don’t know. I really try and keep my hair healthy and that can be kind of damaging,” she protested.

Dana ran her fingers through Kate’s hair a little. “Oh, boo - it’s one night, and it’s not like we’re putting relaxer in your hair. Come on, please? It’ll be so pretty.”  
Kate sort of sighed, but she was vulnerable to enthusiasm. “All right, Danny, curl it.”  
Dana looked at Kate sort of surprised. “Danny? Huh.”  
Kate’s eyes went a little bulgy, realizing she’d been too friendly. “Oh, Dana, sorry!”  
Dana shook her head, now smoothing Kate’s hair back down. “No, Kate, it’s super cute, thank you. Let’s get started.”

–

Max and Kate were each much smaller than Dana and Courtney, especially Kate, the shortest and chubbiest of the bunch. Thus, the promise of giving Kate a makeover felt a little short, but that wasn’t too much of a waste - everyone was excited to see her with her hair down and styled, nevermind her new dark purple nail polish and deeper red lipstick. When she looked herself in the mirror, the color reminded her of what Victoria had been wearing when they kissed, and, experimentally, she put a smirk on her face. It looked pretty weird on her face, but Max seemed to take notice, as did Courtney.

“Wow, hey there, who’re you working on that smolder for?” Courtney teased, indicating to Max that she should turn on her stool so she could inspect Kate better.” 

Kate blushed and dropped the expression, turning to look at Max. The look on Max was less delicate than with Kate, but it was very different than normal - it was still casual, as Max liked, but more feminine. Foundation coated her cheeks, obscuring her normally translucent-like pale skin and freckles, more attention brought to her bright blue eyes by cat-eye-shaped eye liner. It made her less soft looking, but still smooth - more marble than flesh. She wore a white top that laced over the shoulders like a lot of Dana’s clothes that layered nicely with a pair of skinny jeans, but unlike her own pairs, these were a flat, dark violet. It looked a little patchwork and it made Max look even a little younger than normal, but it made Max feel sort of like she was attending a wedding - heightened femininity through the use of a few small changes. The same violet that coated Kate’s fingernails also covered Max’s, alternating in stripes with jet black, which were then layered with a glow in the dark, transparent polish.

“ _Whoah ._  . .” Kate said, slowly admiring Max’s features and how she could present herself.  
Every one of the girls noticed this. Dana and Courtney turned to each other and smiled knowingly, but Max squirmed a little, recognizing the look from Kate but not being sure how to acknowledge it.  
“It’s nice to see what you can do with your hair down,” Max replied, trying to deflect.  
Kate just smiled.

Dana decided to break the tension, “All right now, guys. You owe us - do what you will! Tonight’s going to be awesome.”

The girls all switched places. Kate was amazed as she started to inspect Courtney’s hair. These were the people who used to poke fun at her. And now, she was doing their hair because they invited her. It might be small but it was … something new.

–

“All right, I’ve gotta go find Trevor - I’ll see you guys later!” Dana waved goodbye to Max and Courtney and zoomed off as soon as they were inside the pool area.

It was clear things were just starting to get going, because even though the lights and music were in full swing, relatively few people populated the perimeter of the pool and even fewer were actually in the pool, which was part of the appeal of the whole thing. Honestly, it was a pretty poorly devised party if you considered the mixture of alcohol, tile, and a big pool in the center of a dance party, but everyone seemed to like it.

“I’ve got to go handle entrance to the VIP section, Max, but I’ll see you later in - I’ve got a replacement coming at nine so I can enjoy the second half of the party. Victoria will probably be in the VIP section already - ciao!” Max waved goodbye to her temporary safety in the form of Courtney, and then she was left alone near the diving board.

Well, for a few seconds at least, and then a familiar voice came from behind her: “Yo, Maxwell Silver Hammer, how’s it going?”   
She turned around to face Warren, who was wearing a  _whole new fucking meme shirt_  for no detectable reason considering it was just as casual as his previous one. “Oh, hey Warren. You’re here pretty early.”  
He nodded as if that were a great observation, “Well - yeah. I figured I needed you to get into the VIP section, and I heard from Stella that you left pretty early last time so it seemed smart to come early. Seems I came at the perfect time.”

Last party had been an aberration due to Kate, as she and Victoria usually stayed until others had left so they could at least make a show of cleaning up with Courtney and Taylor. Still, it was a fair point.

–

Mr. Jefferson was not slated to make an appearance at the party until 9:30, and it was about 9:00pm. The party was in full swing, and Max and Victoria had done their best to seem normal as they danced and socialized. But there was something distinctly tense and abnormal about how they were acting, and it was making them unpopular to be around.

It was for that reason that they found themselves in the bathroom at 9:00. They were acting unusual and people could tell, and the unusual part was that they were sober halfway through the party. The bathroom was always a good source of party treats more interesting than Hayden’s weed posse. It was thus that they found themselves with Justin, a person neither of them made terribly much time for - especially since he’d sent a pretty creepy message to Max days earlier that she’d needed Victoria’s help to decode.

What they hadn’t expected from Justin is that he was nearly wedged into the corner of the bathroom and significantly more drunk than almost anyone else here. He was just sort of staring at the floor, but he was clearly intoxicated and trying to keep from overwhelming his senses. The heavy thrum of the music made its way through the walls, actually helping the lyrics be heard over the bass.

“Hey, Justin, what’s going on - you dealing tonight?” Victoria took this for the team, as she had a bit more experience handling drunk people than Max.  
Still … he was pretty coherent. “Huh? Oh … shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got E if you’re looking to party. Doesn’t … Nathan deal for you guys, though?” He seemed really confused.

Victoria shrugged, “Well, yeah, but he’s in the hospital right now.”

He was quiet for a moment and then he said, “Oh … shit, yeah. Fuck. Yes, I’m so fucking sorry for that, you guys. That was really fucked up.”

Max thought his apology sounded really weird, so she butted in, “That’s … okay Justin? I mean, thanks? It’s not like you care for Nathan much.”

He seemed even more confused by that comment. “What? Nooo, fuck no, fuck that motherfucker.” He seemed a little sobered for a second, and finally looked at the two girls properly. Victoria made a point to avoid eye contact - she did not want the contact buzz she’d get from that experience. “So, wait … you two are looking to score? I’m good for that.”

He started to fish through his pockets, but Victoria was looking him up and down now. A deep frown was settling on her face. “Justin, why are you in here alone, and why have you been drinking so much? This isn’t partying.”

He kept looking through his pockets as if deeply confused, occasionally pulling out stuff like receipts and his student ID but having trouble finding his promised ecstasy. “Well … it’s just Dana’s out there. No big thing I just think I’m … like I’m … I’m better in here.”

Max’s head tilted to the size quizzically. “Why would you be hiding from Dana?” But that produced an elbow to the ribs from Victoria. Max still didn’t understand despite the nudge.

“Ah … it’s just some shit with Trevor is all. In the sense that they’re FUCKING,” he really shouted this, and people waiting in line for the toilets looked, but then he quieted down, “But I mean, I mean, it’s nothing. Wait, here it is.” He finally produced a baggie that had maybe a dozen small tablets

Blackwell had a pretty well-established going rate, so Victoria started to withdraw cash from her pockets. But then she paused, just as she was withdrawing enough for a single tablet. “It’s just going to be one …” she started, but a thought seemed to be occurring to her, so her actions slowed as he withdrew a single tablet.

“It was you who attacked us Tuesday night,” Victoria accused, deadpan.   
He didn’t even seem to process her words until he’d handed her the single tablet.

“What … what the fuck? What’re you saying?” But Victoria looked him straight in the eye now. He tried to look down and out of the way but she reached out and put her palm under his chin, making him look up at her.

“You, motherfucker,” she whispered, but full of menace. “You attacked Nathan, and me, and my girlfriend. Dana told you what Nathan did.” She took a step towards him, looming over him but still not letting him look away.

He rapidly turned to cowering, defending himself with, “Nah, nah, get off me bitch,” but as he swiped her hand away, she pushed him further back into the corner of the room so that he ran into the sink. She grabbed the sink on either side so that her arms wrapped around him, and she leaned down so they were about on the same level, but her body enveloped his.

“It was you yelling when you beat him. I remember now. Trevor told you guys to run away. It’s because of you Nathan’s in the hospital.” She said this all very quietly, so barely even Max could hear her over the pulse of the music.

He seemed to realize he couldn’t do anything at this point except, maybe, plead. In his state, he would just get the shit kicked out of him in full view by two girls, and he wasn’t sure how to respond to that, never mind the direct intimidation from Victoria. “Look, Vic, shit - that motherfucker is a rapist. He tried to hurt Dana - we weren’t going to let him get away with this shit. He’s not going to come back here and fuck things up anymore. I know you’re friends but that motherfucker is evil.”

There was fury on her face but it slowly, slowly drained away, being replaced with an understanding for everything that was coming out of him. He didn’t know to any extent what was happening. Somebody just tried to hurt somebody that he cared about, and he was intent on making them pay. The anger was there, but suddenly it was a shared anger. Victoria reached into her breast pocket now and placed the disposable phone together with the money for the ecstasy. “You’re right. And there’s a lot more to it than you know. Take this phone. Tomorrow morning, you’re going to see some shit on Max’s Tumblr - and you’ll realize what this phone is. Now get the fuck out of here before I show you how I feel that you touched my friends.”

He had no fucking clue what was going on, but nonetheless, he put the phone and the money in his pockets and was out like a shot.

After a moment in which everyone realized they should stop looking at Victoria and Max, the two looked at each other. “Do you really think this is a good idea?” asked Max, indicating the tablet in Victoria’s hand.

Victoria stared down at it for a moment. “He’ll want me weak in some way. This will make me a lot more vulnerable … and therefore better bait. Come on, I need a drink.”

–

It was perhaps twenty minutes later and things were starting to feel very, very strange inside the pool. There was always the disassociation that came from a party, never mind a party with with all the booze and other party favors they’d managed to scrounge together without Nathan there, but this was different. Everyone seemed to become infected by it - Victoria didn’t even seem to notice as she gradually deteriorated, slowly becoming enveloped not only in the cacophony of everyone’s emotions but also the music, dancing freely as she rarely did. Many others around them danced as well: Logan, Taylor, Trevor, and Dana were notables. Everyone just started to dance close, despite the spare room, coming into a level of contact that they would ordinarily find uncomfortable. After a few minutes, others started to join as well - Juliet and Zachary got up from their loveseat to come join them, and DJ Doom seemed to be guiding them to the rhythm as they jumped and danced about.  
  
Victoria was both aware of it and not aware of it - the fact that she seemed to be the focal point of this heated movement, of the dance, of the grinding and touching taking place all around in such a close huddle. Only a few minutes passed but during them, almost everyone in the VIP section had joined in, even Warren, who was still holding a half-consumed beer in his hand. Nobody seemed to complain about his presence, although virtually none of them liked him in particularly. It didn’t matter - it was like they were dissolving as individuals and fusing into the song, connected by the contact all around them, the overwhelming body heat, air thick like soup. They just aimed to be more in motion, more in contact.

Then, there was a lull in the music - the point at which an outro met an intro, and the rhythm was less overwhelming. They started to split apart, and as Victoria stopped dancing, she pushed her hair back, slicked with sweat. “Shit, shit, I think I’m freaking out. Max, come on,” she grabbed Max’s hand and pulled her out of the crowd, who all seemed sort of confused. Nevertheless, they wormed their way out from among them and the crowd gradually dispersed as Max and Victoria made their way to the corner of the pool, just behind the outer curtains of the VIP section.

Victoria pushed a towel cart out of the way and moved towards the cool, cool, cold tile wall, and pulled Max towards her until they were pressed together, arms around the other and mouths entwined, sloppily but heatedly making out with virtually no provocation.   
“Tori - what the fuck - is going on?” Max got out between kisses.  
Victoria did not immediately reply, but instead unbuttoned her vest and dropped it on the floor next to them, putting a hand behind Max’s head and pulling her back into another oddly aggressive kiss, but the two of them were not fluid, just melting to each other. Instead, they moved back and forth being up against the wall, eyes closed.  
When Max was up against the wall, Victoria finally responded to the sensory strangeness that was too much saliva on her face, realizing that she was paying so little attention to how they were actually kissing. She lowered her head, still braced against the wall but breathing deeply, pushing her sweaty hair back again. “We’re gonna kill that motherfucker,” she practically shouted, but it didn’t matter over the beat of the music.

Max nodded in response, sloughing off her messenger bag. “Yeah … yeah we are. We’re going to make him pay for what he did to Rachel.” That was such a weird thing for her to say. She didn’t know Rachel. She didn’t care about Rachel. Why did she suddenly want to beat, to stab, to hurt Jefferson for what he did to her? It didn’t feel anything like her.

Victoria looked up now, meeting eyes with Max, and Max felt her body become flooded by every primal emotion that she could feel. Rage. Lust. Hate. Love. It pulled her down and felt like it was ripping her apart. And it felt like the music was red-black, coating her skin in these feelings. But these sensations made no sense to her. They weren’t hers. They were Victoria’s.

Victoria’s eyes suddenly turned off to the left, back towards the party. A second later, she moved forward, pressing her body as flat as she could against Max’s up against the wall, but not in the sexually aggressive manner before. Instead, she shout-spoke next to Max’s ear, “The motherfucker is here.” She breathed a few times, air that was barely any good with the heat inside, even with the pool and everything.  
“Babe. Get your camera. Watch everything. Always take the shot, Max Caulfield. Let’s go get fucked.” And with that, Victoria wandered out from the corner of the room into plain view, aiming straight for Mr. Jefferson.


	7. Thank You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jefferson announces the winner of the Everyday Heroes Contest. Max and Victoria realize the plan has gone horribly, horribly wrong, and set off to fix it before it is too late.

As Victoria wandered across the End of the World party, she became distinctly aware that it wasn’t only her eyes that followed Mr. Jefferson. It was everyone’s - as she passed them, the others seemed to stop what they were doing and zero in on him as if he were the mobile focal point of the room. Most of them weren’t even involved in the competition he was here to announce. But for some reason, tonight, everyone seemed to be placing the same importance on him that Victoria was.

Everything was sort of fucked up. The sensory power not only of the dance itself mixed with the cocktail in Victoria’s system, but also of the wave of feelings constantly pouring into her from everyone around her, was intense.

The only one who didn’t seem to notice that anything was different was Mr. Jefferson himself, who stopped to talk when Victoria essentially blocked him from the stage. “Hey there Victoria! Good to see you - is Max with you?”  
A smirk covered Victoria’s face as she seethed, the tiny resentment amplified with her hatred but all being focused, giving her laser-like focus despite the intensity of everything around her, “Oh, she’s somewhere - you get lost in the dance, you know.”

He seemed to notice something was off, though - as he probably should, considering how much was wrong. “Um . . . are you okay Victoria? You look like you’re on a mission.”  
She shrugged. “Nah, I’m just having a good time, looking forward to your announcement.”  
He nodded and sort of shrugged himself. “Well, I see that. It’s a big night. But, hey, let’s talk later - I’ve got to announce the winner of the contest.”

She smiled brightly in response. “All right,” she responded simply.  
“Excuse me,” he said, skirting around her and making his way up on stage.

The music cut out and he was handed a microphone.

As amplification kicked in, he began, “Okay, everyone, calm down.” A cheer erupted as everyone noticed him on stage - primarily from the art students, but also from the wealth of students who admired him or wanted to fuck him, a thought that filled Victoria with so much disgust in this moment that she imagine it overflowed.  
“Thank you, thank you . . . I appreciate it,” he said, trying to get everyone to calm down at let him speak. “Now, I don’t want to get in the way of the party, but it’s time to announce the winner of the ‘Everyday Heroes’ contest.” She found it funny, now, that she never questioned that Mr. Jefferson would choose to visit and announce this not in his class full of people who entered, but instead in the middle of a party where the majority of students were intoxicated, but before people were clearing out. This motherfucker had everything manipulated.  
The crowd quieted down the more and more Victoria thought these things, giving the room a distinct quiet.

“Before I do, I want to thank everybody who entered their photograph. Now, this is the most important step in being an artist - sharing your work with the world.”  
 _No fuck, like sharing pictures of underaged girls you drugged and held captive on the internet you sick fuck._  
“All of you represent Blackwell Academy, and everything our school stands for. As far as I’m concerned, you’re all everyday heroes! The envelope, please . . .” he held his hand outstretched, and DJ Doom, who had been prepped for this hours ago, handed him the envelope. It wasn’t sealed - Mr. Jefferson just had to pry it open with his fingers and draw out the eggshell card inside.

“And the winner is . . . Oh my, what a shocker: Victoria Chase!”

Victoria feigned surprise as well as she could while both cheering and booing emerged from the crowd. “Oh my god!” She cried, covering her mouth with her hands, filled with disgust as her suspicions became even more confirmed. 

She mounted the stairs and stood just beside the man she hoped would be dead within hours, and took the microphone from his hand. She just winged it as well as she could in her state.  
She looked straight at Mr. Jefferson at first, staring him straight in the eye. “Thank you so much, Mister Jefferson.”

Then she turned towards her fellow students, out over the pool so she wouldn’t have to look at him for this. “It was your incredible photography that brought me to Blackwell Academy and I hope I can live up to your name.” That was all true. She was here for him. Here at this school, and here at this party tonight. “And fame. I also want to thank all of the students for being so dedicated in their pursuit.” Now _that_  was bullshit. She looked at most of the people in the audience and she could barely remember their names - so few of them meant shit to her.

She took a deep breath. “And I’d like to dedicate this prize . . . to Nathan Prescott. It’s because of his family’s work that we’re able to come and have this amazing club, as well as keep such an amazing staff here at Blackwell Academy. He is my  _best friend_ , and I hope he’ll be back here soon. Thank you.”

There was some hollering of dissent as she and Mr. Jefferson descended from the stage - hate for Victoria, more hate for Nathan, pissy comments, someone mentioning that her ass looked great. What you would expect. She followed Jefferson until they stood next to the exit.  
“Well, congratulations Miss Chase - I could not be more proud of you. You made an amazing effort and it has certainly paid off.” He offered his hand out, and she just stared at it for a moment before returning the gesture.

“Thank you, Mr. Jefferson.”

He nodded for a moment along with the shake, and then broke their contact. “Well - I should get going, I don’t want to get in the way. We can talk about San Francisco tomorrow - go enjoy yourself.”

He turned towards the door, but then she just snapped: “You’re leaving?” Her confusion was immensely apparent, and it was her first slip.

His face gained a knowing, charming smile. “Well, it would hardly be appropriate for me to stay. See you tomorrow, Miss Chase.”

And then he was gone. She just stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. After perhaps a full thirty seconds, she shuffled back over to Max in the corner, who was ready and waiting, camera in hand.  
“He just left,” the tall blonde reported.  
“I can see that,” Max replied.

Victoria waved towards the exit, “No, this is wrong . . . let’s follow him.”

\--

As the two exited out the back of the pool, they saw precisely what they did not expect - Mr. Jefferson driving off in his car onto the street. No conflict. No elaborate kidnapping. He just drove away.  
“Fuck . . . fuck it,” whimpered Victoria. “Call Frank. Tell him what’s up.”

Max did just that, and she wasn’t far into her explanation before Frank suddenly materialized in front of them, entirely without warning, holding his cell phone in hand.

“You were fucking WRONG?!” He exploded, putting his cell phone down and jabbing a finger at max.

Victoria shook her head, stepping between him and her girlfriend. “No . . . there’s no way we were wrong. It’s him. It’s got to be him.

He gestured towards the road. “Then what the fuck was that!?”

Victoria just sort of stared him down in response. “I don’t know. Something is wrong. But we can still get him. Just not . . . right now, I guess.”

Frank could see that she was fucked up, even if he was unaware to what extent - he was hardly aware of the empathy thing overwhelming her. He just took a step back from her. “Jesus. This is what I get for trusting you two to handle something. You Blackwell shits are good-for-nothing. I’m out of here.”

He left, making his way into the parking lot and setting off to hoof it . . . they were not entirely sure where, unless he was planning to walk all the way back to the beach.

Max wrapped an arm around Victoria. “We missed something. Let’s just get out of here for now.”  
Victoria nodded, but she knew she had not miscalculated. It was Mr. Jefferson. It was Mr. Jefferson.

\--

Max knocked on Kate’s door, still wanting to establish an alibi in case Frank went and did something crazy. There was no response, so she knocked again. Then a third time.  
Victoria was a little too out of it, stroking Max’s clothes and the like, but Max realized something was wrong, and reached down, pushing Kate’s door open.

What she stepped into was not what she had expected. The room was trashed - Kate’s mirror lay shattered on the ground. Alice’s cage was turned on its side and the tiny bunny sat, quivering, in the corner of its cage, its food spilled everywhere and water dribbling out onto the carpet. Clothes and papers were displaced haphazardly around the room, and Kate’s stool near her desk was on its side.

“Oh no . . .” Victoria began, staring in while Max sat in shocked silence. “No no no no no FUCK FUCK FUCK!” She realized what she had miscalculated - Kate was an easier target. She was one of the only people not going to the party - in fact, she was the only person in the Girls’ Dorm who hadn’t attended, with David deCosta being the odd man out on his side. And she had been Jefferson’s target well before Victoria.

“I’ll call Frank - we’ll get her, Tori.” Max pushed Call, grabbed Victoria’s hand, and began to run.

\--

Frank was already waiting by Victoria’s car by the time they arrived, whether by teleportation or running was unclear - he was clearly amped either way. Max had already briefed him, so Victoria just dug into her trousers for her keys and tossed them to Frank. “I can’t drive,” she said, and waited for him to unlock the Prius before stuffing herself in the back seat.

The three were tossed about as he rapidly accelerated out of the parking lot.

\--

Victoria was leaning up against the cool glass of the car, staring out at the forest that surrounded them. “Holy fuck . . .” she murmured. “What’s up with the moon?” By that, she meant - why the fuck were there two moons in the sky? Frank just now seemed to notice this, as did Max.

“It’s the end of Arcadia Bay,” Max said ominously.

Frank tried to ignore it. “The two of you are freaking me the fuck out. What sort of lead do they have on us?”

Max shrugged, trying to figure out how long this had all taken them. “I don’t know, ten minutes? Fifteen at the most?”

Frank slammed the side of the steering wheel in frustration. “Fuck! I’ve got to get there  _now_.”  
And, suddenly, he got his wish. He vanished from behind the wheel, and the car was left without a driver.

“Oh my lord!” Max cried, but had the instincts to grab the steering wheel, forcing the car to stay on the poorly-lit, windy road as it rapidly decelerated. Within about two dozen seconds they were in park on the side of the road, Victoria clutching the empty seat in front of her as if it would protect her.

Max breathed deeply. “Fuck . . .” She looked back at Victoria in the back seat, trying to make up her mind. “Tori, you’ve got to drive. We’ve got to save Kate.”

This occurred to Victoria as insane, and it was. She knew it. But she wanted to see Jefferson bleed. “Okay,” she confirmed, and made her way to the front seat. She adjusted the rearview mirror. As she did, Max looked into the mirror, hoping to gain a glimpse of insight from the Other Side. But there was no one looking back but her.

\--

They parked just outside of the gate maybe fifteen minutes later, put the car in Park, and exited the vehicle. They hopped the gate and made a dash down the long driveway to the barn. They skirted around the side of the barn and moved the sheet of old steel that hid the hole in the barn before ducking inside of it. Max first, they made their way to the exposed hatch and threw it open, dashing down to find the vault door open. So close to her.

They sprinted inside, past the appliances and food storage, and turned the corner into the long section of the bunker.

And there they saw it. Frank lay, head partially submerged in a pool of his own blood, just outside of the white portion of the bunker, where a tripod had a mounted camera. The camera pointed towards the white, flat surface at the end of the bunker, and that’s where they saw her.

Her body twisted and on its face, they saw Kate lying much like Frank - in a pool of blood seeping from her head. The brightly illuminated white surface made it perfectly clear what happened to her, as her blood and brain matter spattered the surface in tiny dots.

Victoria rushed forward as Max become paralyzed in horror.

Victoria collapsed a few feet from Kate, falling to her knees. “No . . . no. What world does this? How could anybody . . . do this to Kate?”

And that’s when Max felt it. A sharp sting on the side of her neck. Within seconds she felt her legs buckle as her muscles gave out, and she fell on her hands and knees. She could hear shoes move forward but she found it strangely hard to breathe, and she just gasped as she felt her airway constricting. “N . . . no,” was all she amounted to.

But Victoria heard it. She was on her feet and turned in a moment. “Oh my god.”  
And then, it hit her. Right in the stomach, a bullet ripped its way through her, and she fell on her back, her face falling next to Kate’s in a puddle of cooling blood.

Max could only watch, her arms collapsing too as she fell to the ground entirely, barely keeping her head up as unconsciousness rapidly pulled her down, suffocating her. But the shoes just continued right past her, taking care to avoid the pool of blood that Frank had created. 

“I’m sorry, Miss Chase. But you’re no hero. Thank you for bringing Max to me.” He stared her right in the eye - Max could see that, but Victoria could muster no response as she lay dying.  
They had lost. Max had too much to lose, and she lost it all. Those were her last thoughts before she slipped into unconsciousness.


End file.
